Thought I would share this story with you. Whether it is intentional or unintentional making racist remarks hurts and it is wrong. It is also a human rights issue.
<strong>Racism painful and pointless</strong>
I am Natalie Beliveau I have been affected by racism since I moved to Souris. I am native and barely know anything about my background. I am 16 years of age and in Grade 10.
I moved to Souris when I was in Grade 6, and on my second day of school and my first time taking the bus, two boys in my grade yelled at me and my sister. “Go back to your reserve where you came from.” I have never lived on a reserve. I once went on a reserve, but I was too little to remember.
This town is a nice town, but there are a lot of prejudiced people. In my view, a small town has nothing better to do than make up rumours. There are not many natives in this town, but most of them have been marked or labelled as bad people. I wish that people would say things based on fact and not uninformed opinion.
My parents and brother are white. My twin sister and I were adopted at birth.
Racism is not funny. It is no joke! This needs to be told to people everywhere.
Our country might be multicultural but some people are racist. We have people come to our schools and talk to us about drunk driving and drugs, so why not have people come to our schools and talk to us about racism?
I think racism is absurd and uncalled for. I am not a racist in any way. I see no reason to hate other cultures. How can anyone hate a whole culture without knowing them? You can never meet everyone from one races, so how can you know what the whole culture is like? Racism is completely and truly ridiculous and uncalled for.
In the middle years playground at school there is a mural which we decided to paint when I was in Grade 8. The whole class had permission from the school and teacher. A mural was designed with the earth in the middle of different coloured arms connecting together. Above it says “Middle Years Has Character”.
When my friends and I finished painting it, my friends and I noticed that all the hands had actually been left as white. When we confronted the teacher who was in charge she said we could not get a hold of brown paint. I was very disappointed in what was told to us. It has been two years now and it still has not changed.
Another incidence of racism was a girl who said: “I don’t want any natives in my school.” I am really fed up with all this racism stuff. I am not impressed.
I have handed in a lot of resumes a long time ago and have still received no word from any of the employers. I do not know why they have not hired me. Maybe because they have heard bad things about me, or maybe they are just just plain racists.
I felt like I am not supposed to be who I am. I wish I could be myself without being labelled or judged.
NATALIE BELIVEAU
globalcounselor 